Update log
Full shapez update
The complete published notes, normalized for clean reading and source attribution.
Repeated intro
Hello everyone!
Extracted changes
- Store
- Gameplay
- Maps
- UI and audio
- Balance
Put it in your calendar, our Early Access release should be in Mid-August! We’re 97% sure we’ll make that, so while the odds are very good it’s not completely impossible that we’ll still need to reschedule.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
What can you expect from the Early Access version of the game? We’re glad you asked!
Early Access Release Status Update
Generally, we think the game is in great shape with plenty of polish already! There are so many improvements over the first game that shapez 1 now feels more like a prototype for shapez 2.
In no particular order, there are:
Multi-layer factories
Trains
New research system
Fluids
Blueprint library & toolbar
Lots of quality of life improvements
Crystals
Pins
Multiple progressions,
Customizable map generation,
Mirrorable buildings,
Platforms
Undo/redo
So much more!
We also have a very high quality standard that we want to meet, so we have invested a lot of time in optimizing the user interface, onboarding & tutorial and making sure you have a smooth experience!
Launch Month!
We are now aiming to launch in Mid August. This is around 97% confirmed so while we are pretty certain, please don’t be mad if we have to reschedule it!
Our Plans for Early Access
Generally, we think the best time to get started with the game is already during Early Access. During Early Access, we will be mostly working on adding big new content iterations every few months that justify picking up the game again. We will of course release hotfixes and so on, but we believe fewer, bigger releases make more sense than more numerous smaller increments. Less frequent releases also allow us to work more effectively on bigger updates.
For these bigger updates we want to try more experimental things like new game modes with bold changes that we didn’t want to try for the main game mode. However, we will decide what to work on based on surveys that we’ll run after the release! After all, we want to work on things you actually care about!
Of course there may be issues (minor bugs, unfinished or non-optimised visuals, etc) but we’re not using Early Access to put out an unfinished game for testing - for us Early Access is a way to get feedback and show our commitment to updating the game!
We want to make sure that you can make an informed decision about whether to jump in with the Early Access launch, so here’s an overview of what to expect…
What’s looking good for Early Access
Game Design, Progression & Balance
We are happy with how the game design is going. The overall progression and balancing feels very nice already. Obviously this is always an on-going part of development and we will continue to fine tune based on your feedback.
We also got way more done than initially planned - if everything goes well, we will launch with 3 progression modes - Normal, Hard, Hexagonal. This does depend on how the final weeks leading up to the launch go, but we’re hopeful!
Usability
We have invested a lot of time to make sure the belt placement & general UI/UX is as smooth as possible. There might be an initial learning curve, but after that it should feel pretty natural - even elegant!
We are also currently working on doing the same improvements to the Space Belts & Trains and are confident we’ll get that in for the Early Access launch as well.
Source